The classic bottle cleaning machines known from the prior art (e.g. LAVATEC of the company KRONES, the assignee of the present application) move the bottles in bottle containers, which are arranged in a row on crossbars, through the different caustic baths. FIG. 6 shows, for instance, the sections that are arranged one after the other and through which a bottle is passed to be cleaned. The caustic baths must have a certain volume to achieve the corresponding treatment times and adequate cleaning. The large volume, however, means a lot of chemicals, a lot of energy for heating and for maintaining the temperature of the cleaning liquid, and a sturdy construction for carrying the weight.